Judge rules former Optum exec can keep working at Atul Gawande’s new health venture, for now

Optum can’t block one of its former employees from working for the new health care venture formed by Amazon, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Berkshire Hathaway while waiting for an arbitration process between the two companies to begin, a federal judge in Boston ruled Friday.

The decision comes after a series of highly contentious hearings — including one that was closed to the public — about whether David Smith, formerly a mid-level executive at the subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, violated a noncompete agreement when he took his new position.

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No one will bother to look at the data that may have alreayd come from Optum, and other companies like it. They have data on millions of Americans, which they ahev already sold for otehr purposes, without our permission.